Noah’s Ark: From all perspectives

Noah’s Ark has been the center of focus for expeditions on Mount Ararat for years. Numerous scientists, archaeologists, and geologists have tried to find the Ark on the Mountain but with little success. The story of Noah’s Ark suggests that Noah and his family lived somewhere near Mesopotamia some 5000-6000 years ago. Noah’s story also talks about a wooden boat that carried Noah, his family and a pair of all living creatures on the planet during a flood that engulfed Earth. It is said that Noah was to arrange the construction of the boat as well as the loading of all creatures, big and small in just seven days for a flood that would last years. Although Noah’s story is popular in many cultures and mentioned in many holy books, several geologists and archaeologists are not convinced about the proportion and intensity of many things in the “epic tale”. Many argue that the story might be misunderstood or the words in the books could be misinterpreted.

First of all, geologists argue that the wooden boat, the size talked about in the books could not have existed at the time of Noah. “Even nineteenth-century engineers” would have struggled to build a boat the size of Noah’s boat completely of wood. The boat size of Noah’s would need some steel reinforcements to hold the wood against the crashing waves of the sea. Otherwise, it would leak from inside out and drown. Next, geologists point out that the water in the oceans, ice caps, and the earth’s surface is not enough to cover all the continents and “engulf the earth” as mentioned in the books. If there ever was a flood that would engulf the earth, the atmospheric pressure itself over the oceans would crush any living thing on the planet let alone Noah’s ark. Then, they point out about the “water from the hot springs” that gushed out from the planet’s core during the flood. Geologists and scientists argue that there isn’t enough hot spring water on the planet to cover the landmass and if there ever was, the temperature of the hot springs itself would melt anything on the water surface let alone Noah’s wooden arc. Then, there are photographs taken by the US planes sometime during 1950-60’s and released around 1995 that show the presence of Noah’s Ark on Mount Ararat. Researchers and photo investigations show that this “poor quality photos” show many dark spots in the shape of Arcs on Mount Ararat that can be mistranslated as Noah’s Arc. With such observations, scientists, researchers, and archaeologists conclude that there should be an alternative to Noah’s story. This alternate version of the story is told from the scriptures and clay tablets found during archaeological digs in Iraq at around 1850’s – 1900’s and later translated by a librarian in the British Museum.

The alternative version of Noah’s story starts off somewhere in Shuruppak (Sumeria), the “cradle of civilization”. Sumerians invented the wheel, writing, and accounting. Noah here is depicted as a rich merchant and businessman dealing with silver and gold. In fact, he is said to be the “king” of Shuruppak. And instead of a huge boat, the king must have had smaller cargo vessels made of timber of those time tied together to construct his arc. And instead of marching animals “2 by 2”, he would be loading animals, grain, and cargo. Also, the kind of Armageddon storm talked about in the books would not exist in those warm climate areas. Instead, there is a possibility of tropical storm or hurricane. A storm that would carry Noah’s cargo boat from the Euphrates river bank into the Persian gulf hence the “salty water” mentioned in the scriptures. They couldn’t see land for seven days because they could have been drifting in the Persian Gulf… as “he looked upon the sea”. And instead of landing on Mount Ararat, he would’ve returned to the shores of Persian Gulf either Shuruppak or Dilmun (Modern Day Bahrain) as indicated by the Babylonian scriptures.

In conclusion, though the reality of Noah’s story might present a twist to the original depiction by many books. Nevertheless, the lessons of debt remain the same in both ancient days and present time. Debt can force a “king to slavery” and it forgives no one.